(Zhenya POV)

“The chase is on! Screams past and present echo around every corner. Fights breaking out left and right. Is this the end of the dungeon as we know it!?”

“Geez, you are really getting into this, aren’t you?” Fredrica lightly knocks her knuckle against my forehead before returning it to her gauntlet. “Come on, we don’t have all day. We’re already lagging behind as is.”

“Right.”

We entered after the initial charge. The idea was to let those guys cause a racket, letting us slip past unhindered.

Dashing down our usual path, the sounds of battle were always close, always a stone’s throw away. But as we neared the lake, it all suddenly stopped. Muted, as if this place was ignorant of the violence happening around it.

Actually, with the fighting stifled, a few sounds stood out to me. The rippling lake, the grass rustling, and the unmistakable sound of someone panting. Heavily.

A man. One of Bargas’s, judging from his appearance, bursts out from the woods. Desperately flailing himself forward while skittishly checking behind his shoulder at every step.

“A demon. Haaahhhh! a demon. Haaahhhh! Run. Haaaaaahhhh! Gotta keep running!” Stepping out of his way, he ran by us. Repeating the same lines over and over in between labored breathes.

Some crazed bastard cracking under the weight of combat? I wish!

From what I’ve experienced, a dungeon is anything but ordinary.

Along this tranquil muted shore, there was indeed a demon stalking him. Of a sort.

From the treetops, whistling through the air an arrow found its way into the back of his shin, downing him.

Indifferent to the screams of bloody murder, his assailant gracefully leapt down from her perch.

“Ah! It- It’s you!”

“What!? You know this person!?” Fredrica snapped to me in surprise. Straining her voice to make it heard over the manic screaming.

“.. .... .. .... .... .. .... ....” The demon, however, spoke casually.

Noticing her voice not reaching us, she tied a piece of cloth around his mouth, finally putting an end to the screeching. “As I was saying, it’s funny meeting again after so long~.”

As she busied herself tying up the rest of him, I filled Fredrica in on who this demon was. Well, to me at least.

“Let’s see, it happened when I first came to town. At the time, I didn’t have any identification on me. So that became a problem, but this person right here.” As if on cue, she glances up from treating the man’s arrow wound to wave at us, completely ignoring the fact I was whispering.

“Uhh, so yeah. She vouched for me and hitched a free line cut...”

“...”

“That’s about it. The end.” She didn’t even tell me her name...

Putting a damper on any fantasies Fredrica may have had, she lost all interest in the mystery that was my relationship to this ‘Demon’.

“Oh, don’t be so dower. Here, I’m Ayase nice ta meet ya.” With the man now thoroughly restrained, she turns around and offers Fredrica a handshake. Which was shakily accepted.

“Now, what brings you two here?” She continues.

Strange, It should be pretty obvious. “Huh? Well, I’m Zhenya, and this is Fredrica. We’re here for the subjugation request, same as everyone else.”

“Hmmm? That doesn’t sound right.” I feel my blood run cold as that demon-like aura crashes into me. You know, maybe that guy cracking under pressure wasn’t too far off the mark.

“You’re not Vanguard. You let this guy go without a fight.” She pats her bound prey. “But you’re not rescue team either. No. To focused, you have a destination in mind.”

H- How long has she been stalking us?

“Now, now. I’m not saying you’re with the enemy. But it's clear you’re not telling me the full truth.”

Words did little to placate Fredrica, who had a tense grip on her blade. That biting aura had already left its impression on us...

Argh, I can’t spill the beans here, can I? Virgil gave us this mission in secrecy, but he never told us outright to keep it discrete. Weighing my options, the person in question crashed our conversation out of nowhere, as he usually did.

“Oh? Mister Virgil, is it already time?” Ayase asks, seemingly unfazed by his teleportation act.

“A bit early. But yeah, I’m here for the pickup.” Apparently, this mysterious handoff involved her hogtied victim, and he wasn’t the only one. A little ways away, she had cleared out a dense section of foliage for extra storage.

Whistling in amazement, Virgil gave the squirming mass of people a twice-over. “Haaahhhh, this is gonna take a while.” He moaned while a gleeful Ayase made an off-hand comment about aiming to impress.

“Well, before I get to Work,” He tiredly squeezes out work. “I happened to catch your earlier conversation. And Ayase, I swear as an official of the A.A association, these two are working under my orders.” Her biting aura recedes.

“Also, may I request you accompany these two for the hurdles ahead. Of course, there will be extra payment sent to the usual place.” She accepted the offer almost immediately.

Astounding! Not only has he stopped Ayase from creating more bodies for him to lug up, he’s also made us her problem. I can only dream of reaching the same level of sublime laziness this man has achieved.

“Let’s leave Mister Virgil to his savor his little victory,” A slight interjection came from Virgil. It was promptly ignored by all parties. “you girls are in a hurry, right?”

Crap... What are we doing wasting time here!? Hitting the trail, we sprinted off with Ayase outpacing the both of us.

Watching us sprint off, Virgil once again disappeared into the woodworks carrying the first of many gagged victims.

Thanks to Ayase’s keen eye keeping us out of trouble, we reached the valley faster than expected, and uh. Well, the place is... “Shields on the wolf!” “Protect the pig!” “This wolf is pretty manly, isn’t he?” “Ram down the walls!” “More archers!”

... Aight. This is-. Where do even I begin? Ehhh. Okay, Okay I got it. Ignore that middle statement... That’s a good start. Next, why are the enemies piled into a kid’s hideout!

It looked and was about as small as the snow forts we used to build back at home for our epic snowball fights. They couldn’t even stand up all the way they had hunch behind its metal walls.

And that’s not even the weirdest thing!

Our guys were storming the fort(?) side by side with that monstrous wolf. And they’re bonding with it! Thumbs up, good jobs, head pats! Wait, wait, let’s not get ahead of myself here. Last time I checked, that fort used to be the little pig’s humble straw hut. So what happened there?!

Well, besides that insanity, the enemy was at least shoring up their lines with makeshift palisades made out of wooden stakes.

“What. The. Absolute. Hell?” So many questions... And ‘is this an illusion?' Isn’t even one of them.

“Split up, gather information, and figure out how to get past this?” Fredrica pipped up.

“You got something to keep track of time?” To answer my question, Fredrica pulls three palm-sized hourglasses from her magic bag chest.

“It should be set for ten minutes.” She added.

Syncing hourglasses, we headed our separate ways. I already had someone in mind. Through all the chaos, I happened to catch a glimpse of a certain shorty!

He was prodding the fortress with arrows from the back lines. “Hey! Buddy over here!”

Grabbing his attention, I could immediately tell that he only had a faint recollection of me. “Yeah, remember me? Training camp? On the way into the dungeon, you gave me whiplash along with those ominous words of warning. By the way, the names Zhenya.”

“Uh, ya sorry about that. Nikolaos,” He gives me a nod half in apology and introduction. “we got off on the wrong foot. You know, with things going down the way they did that day, I just wanted to stay out of trouble.”

“Eh, no hard feelings. Right now, I just want to talk, but let’s back up a bit first,” This whole time, arrows have been trickling down on us, landing a little to close for comfort.

From there, we started trading info, with it boiling down like so.

The enemy has created a blockade spanning the entire width of the valley.

While the fort may seem heavily manned, it only houses high priority targets like mages and alchemists. Most of their forces are spread across said line.

Killing the pig within should cause the fortress to collapse, or something along those lines. That explains the unusual partnership.

The enemy forces have set up a makeshift base behind their defensive line and are working in shifts.

Lastly, they waterlogged the ground in front of their line, causing it to turn all mushy.

That last point had me the most worried. The ground looked like mud, but in actuality, its consistency is closer to mushed up paper. Well, dashing past is out. Even if we did make it, there would be a whole camp standing between us and the second floor.

Maybe another route?

But there’s no telling what dungeon-y crap we might run into. Also, trying to navigate from a completely different area would probably take to much time in of itself.

Tch, I guess our only path is through the valley.

Checking the hourglass, my 10 minutes were up. Parting ways with Nikolaos, I headed back to the meeting place. Ayase was already there waiting, and Fredrica arrived shortly after looking... crispier than usual.

“Long story, ran into some old friends on the front lines, got clipped by a rouge blast potion, and now here I stand.” Fredrica finished, looking strangely refreshed rather than sour, considering her singed armor.

“Anyways, I found out personally, that the enemy is using fire, albeit in small quantities. And on top of that, they dumped barrels full of water on the ground just in case. But...” A sly grin forms on her face. “The wood pikes they used for the palisade. Bone dry.”

Ayase pitched in right after. “Oh! I also looked into the barricade, it’s flimsy at best with several points left severely undermanned, perfect entry points.” Her villainous smirk cracks ever larger. “The only problem is that mud moat. Makes it damn near impossible to approach them without being noticed.”

Pooling our collective information, we pieced together a plan of attack, almost. To pull this off, we needed a few more bodies, and we knew exactly where to find them.

(Curator POV)

“Usually, I would invite you to a friendly match of ssireum, but seeing as you mean the dungeon in its entirety harm...” Dokkaebi slammed his seldom-used club at the ground, sending a message to all that he would put down anybody foolish enough to dare step forth.

There were no guests, no interruptions here on the second (killing) floor.

Their leader Sabastian, a name I picked up while listening in on them, led the way. Although it didn’t really matter where they went, I navigated Dokkaebi right to them.

There was some commotion amongst his men, but soon enough, they got the message.

Each swing of Dokkaebi's mighty club let loose oppressive gusts, lashing away his foes at a distance. He’s never really been prone to bloodshed, unlike his brothers. But he’s the most stalwart of the three. I can depend on him to maintain the line until the last.

That and... “We got company!” “In the bushes!” “The ground! the ground!” He’s the only one even half-decent at coordinating the troops.

On Dokkaebi’s signal, the boggarts dogpiled in from their hiding places, adding even further to the chaos. Soon the only constant in the dust cloud of melee, or would it be a paper cloud? Either or, the only constant was the hulking goblin at the center of it all.

Reading the situation, Sabastian immediately issued the order to buddy up and disperse. His voice boomed through the dust clouds firm, unmistakable.

Not a bad move, per se, but definitely an annoying one. It’s gonna be a pain to keep track of them all.

Dokkaebi hastily moved to prevent their escape, but Sabastian dashed forward in turn. Intercepting his foe, Sabastian made the first move. Jabbing his spear into the ground, he vaulted himself up and at Dokkaebi, decking him right in the jaw.

The blow wasn't strong enough to send Dokkaebi reeling back, but it was enough to halt him. Buying enough time for his men to escape.

Well damn... This is gonna be a pain to clean up, and the second wave is about to hit.

(Zhenya POV)

“So, everyone understands the plan?” Fredrica asks the ragtag band we gathered.

A round of affirmations ring out, “Alright then. Scatter!”

Nikolaos and Ayase dash out of sight, flaunting their mobility. Leaving me, Fredrica, and those old friends of hers to head towards the front lines.

Antonia, when Fredrica introduced us, practically jabbed glares into me. Of course, I haven’t forgotten her, I don't think I could ever forget even if I tried!

The only reason she hasn’t blasted my ears with whatever she has to say yet was due to Fredrica. She has a pretty good read on Antonia's personality, talking her down.

Not that it was easy, I only caught whispers of their talk. Something about me being a half-blood again, but after Fredrica mentioned where I was from, Antonia relented.

Marching unto the iron fortress, things played out exactly how we envisioned it.

An enemy alchemist readied his potion, and almost instantly, a cloth tipped arrow flies in, knocking it out of his hand. Tumbling down, it shatters on the wooden palisade, exploding into drizzling flaming droplets.

Spreading, quickly chewing away at the dry-wall before flowing to the ground, it starts crawling towards the enemy encampment. They were trapped in a coffin of their own making, with the ground wet as it was, it contained the spread to only their side.

Here comes the hard part. Dashing alongside the barricade, we stopped in front of one of its many weak points. Dousing the inflamed area along with ourselves in water, courtesy of Antonia. We painstakingly slogged through the sludgy mush, and yeah, the other side was exactly like last time, except on a smaller scale.

Hurriedly and discretely jog-running through the burning corpse of the camp, our enemy was too preoccupied with watering anything red to notice us. The ones that did, well, a swift arrow from the archer duo put them down pretty quickly.

At the outskirts of the valley, we climbed the ladder they had set up prior. And like that, we were home free.

Leaving the fighting behind us, I feel bad for skimping out, but we still have a job to do. And hey, I’m sure they’ll be okay, Ayase’s there after all.